KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- In front of wall murals preaching
tolerance and black pride, Percival Cordwell proudly recounts how he
helped drive two men from his shantytown because he thought they were
gay.
The two were lying side by side on a beach four blocks away, in
their swimsuits, when a neighborhood man screamed "Batty boys!" --
Jamaican slang for homosexuals. Cordwell joined a stick-waving mob
moving in on the two men.
"These guys ran for their lives. Everybody wanted to get a lick,"
Cordwell, 47, a soccer coach for teen-agers, recalls.
Despite the laid-back, anything-goes image propagated by tourist
boards, gays and gay-bashers here agree on perhaps only one point:
Jamaica is the most hostile island toward homosexuals in the Caribbean.
Gays do visit Jamaica but generally stick to smaller resorts or
guest houses away from main tourism areas. Gay tourists are told not to
hold hands in hotel restaurants or outside resorts for fear of attacks.
The anti-gay sentiment has become known worldwide through the
increasing popularity of Jamaican "dancehall," a rap-reggae music
hybrid that often has raunchy or violent themes.
In slums like Cordwell's rough Southside neighborhood, the music has
long been popular, as has gay-bashing. No homosexuals live here and
none ever will, he declares.
Cordwell, his long dreadlocks tucked under a multicolored knit cap,
said he maintains the integrity of his soccer teams by never picking a
player from outside the neighborhood. You never know, he says.
Beside him, a half-dozen members of a neighborhood gang, the
Superstuds, agree, competing to describe the violence they would
administer if they found gays or lesbians.
Examples of Jamaica's hostile attitudes toward gays abound:
--An attempt to toughen Jamaica's rape law stalled last March
because critics contended that allowing prosecution for the rape of one
man by another would implicitly give legal acknowledgement to sex
between two consenting adult men. An outpouring of angry public
complaints forced the government to put aside the proposed amendment.
--Reggae rappers often depend on gay-bashing themes to stir up
concert-goers, as was done in August's Sunsplash music festival. The
theme of Buju Banton's international hit "Boom Boom Bye" -- kill
homosexuals -- has provoked criticism in the United States, but little
in Jamaica.
The tough talk comes as no surprise to Larry Chang, a restaurant
owner and property manager who is one of the few gay Jamaicans who has
gone public. He has lost work because of his beliefs, endured insults
on the street and says neighbors have shunned him.
Homosexuality provokes "a trigger response" among most Jamaicans,
says Chang, who had been secretary of a now-disbanded gay rights group.
The intolerance has something to do with the legacy of slavery and
with the predominance of single-parent families, Chang speculates.
"Most Jamaican men grow up without a father. They never felt
affection from another man, any kind of affection, and they don't know
how to deal with it," he says.
Psychiatrist Aggrey Irons, who is host of Jamaican radio and
television programs on human sexuality, adds that constant anti-gay
messages by evangelical Protestant faiths may also play a role. He says
Jamaica tolerates homosexuality as long as it is not advertised -- a
tropical version of President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy
for the U.S. military.
Irons says he has treated some men who "are afraid that the stigma
may be attached to them, so their defense is to hit out rather than
deal with their own insecurity."